Motorcycle Rentals, What is required

[21elnegocio]

The other day I was starring at my motorcycles and Im like I can probably rent them out, but what if they get damaged how would I know they will be responsible for this and not just run away or even steal my motorcycle.

I do know I would as for a motorcycle license they must have this to rent one
Then ask for a valid state ID and their debit card to put in the system just in case any damage, or even stolen I would automatically take the money out. But what if the debit doesnt have any funds how would I know this ?

Any people that rent out cars on the forums that might want to help me out please ?

 

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[21elnegocio]

I just called my local motorcycle rental place, and they require
Motorcycle drivers license
A credit card , I said "I have a debit" She said ok then you have to have a limit of 2,000 dollars in it I ask how would you know if I have the $2,000 in there she replies "See thats why a credit card would work better"

I say ok thank you

 

[JEdwards]

Humm, That would be a tough one.. But doable as seen here.

Motorcycle Rental San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland ← Harley • BMW K1300GT • Honda Goldwing • ST1300

My concern would be inexperienced riders and insurance.. If some idiot who has never driven a bike more than 50 feet gets on and kills himself and a passenger.. Your business would be done.

I guess you could make sure they are licensed, and check their dl for tickets and what not..

Just tough..

 

[Jake]

In Thailand the motorcycle rental places hold on to your passport. I don't see that working in the U.S though.

 

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[21elnegocio]

Humm, That would be a tough one.. But doable as seen here.

Motorcycle Rental San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland ← Harley • BMW K1300GT • Honda Goldwing • ST1300

My concern would be inexperienced riders and insurance.. If some idiot who has never driven a bike more than 50 feet gets on and kills himself and a passenger.. Your business would be done.

I guess you could make sure they are licensed, and check their dl for tickets and what not..

Just tough..

Your right, thats whats scares me a non experienced rider.

 

[TheBigPill]

You'd probably need to get a commercial insurance policy. I don't know the ins and outs but I'd say start with your insurance company and give the folks at SCORE (if you're in the U.S>) a call.

You could also call a motorcycle rental company and ask them. If you're in a different geographic area you probably won't be seen as competition. After all, all they can say is no!

 

[PatrickP]

There are many many places that do it. If it were me I would go to Google and find a list of places that rent them. Most likely places would be Daytona Beach and Miami. Give them a call and be honest with what you are thinking and see if they will answer a couple questions. If not call the next one.

 

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[rc08234]

Like someone else said, death is likely. Could you live with yourself knowing you rented a cycle out to someone and they died on it? Not trying to damper the mood, just trying to be realistic. I've never ridden a cycle before and have wanted one for years, if I had the chance to rent one I probably would.

I get the imagine of the mayhem commercial for insurance.

[video=youtube_share;9CG5HozkvAc]http://youtu.be/9CG5HozkvAc[/video]

 

[PatrickP]

Like someone else said, death is likely. Could you live with yourself knowing you rented a cycle out to someone and they died on it? Not trying to damper the mood, just trying to be realistic. I've never ridden a cycle before and have wanted one for years, if I had the chance to rent one I probably would.

I get the imagine of the mayhem commercial for insurance.

[video=youtube_share;9CG5HozkvAc]http://youtu.be/9CG5HozkvAc[/video]

WHAT?????



That is ridiculous. So now what he is suppose to be in charge of what adults do of their own free will?

Well you wouldn't be allowed to rent one because you do not have a motorcycle license.

The person needs to have a motorcycle license. The majority of people who rent bikes actually own one themselves and they rent one when they go to Sturgis or Daytona etc because they don't feel like riding or trailering their bike on vacation.

 

[rc08234]

WHAT?????



That is ridiculous. So now what he is suppose to be in charge of what adults do of their own free will?

Well you wouldn't be allowed to rent one because you do not have a motorcycle license.

The person needs to have a motorcycle license. The majority of people who rent bikes actually own one themselves and they rent one when they go to Sturgis or Daytona etc because they don't feel like riding or trailering their bike on vacation.

Who said I didn't have a motorcycle license? You can take your test on a scooter here in NJ and never actually even have to ride a bike to get your license I believe. So you could easily have someone very inexperienced riding one. Don't say " Well you wouldn't be allowed to rent one because you do not have a motorcycle license."

As far as "That is ridiculous. So now what he is suppose to be in charge of what adults do of their own free will?"
When most people watch the news, or hear of a death they feel some kind of emotion even if they never even met the person. 99% of people would feel bad if someone wrecked on their bike and died, they wouldn't say "oh well, wasn't my fault" Being in charge of what someone does with their free will has nothing to do with this situation. Yes they decided to get on the motorcycle and it was their decision, that still doesn't mean he won't feel bad about it.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

When most people watch the news, or hear of a death they feel some kind of emotion even if they never even met the person. 99% of people would feel bad if someone wrecked on their bike and died, they wouldn't say "oh well, wasn't my fault" Being in charge of what someone does with their free will has nothing to do with this situation. Yes they decided to get on the motorcycle and it was their decision, that still doesn't mean he won't feel bad about it.

I have a friend who owned an asphalt and gravel trucking business. The business was extremely successful. In September last year one of their trucks blew the left front tire while traveling on an interstate. The driver lost control, truck went into the grass median causing it to go airborne head-on into an 18 wheeler. The accident instantly killed the driver of the 18 wheeler. He was 38 years old with a wife and 2 young children. The driver of my friends truck suffered 3rd degree burns and nearly died. The emotional effect this had on my friend, his family and his co-owners was devastating. They asked themselves, "Could this happen again?" They closed the business down and liquidated it's assets.

 

[TheBigPill]

Like someone else said, death is likely. Could you live with yourself knowing you rented a cycle out to someone and they died on it? Not trying to damper the mood, just trying to be realistic. I've never ridden a cycle before and have wanted one for years, if I had the chance to rent one I probably would.

I get the imagine of the mayhem commercial for insurance.

I'm new here so I'll be diplomatic.

WTF are you talking about?

For the most part that's all I really have to say. And if you got a motorcycle license to ride a scooter there's likely some type of limitation regarding actual motorcycles.

 

[TheBigPill]

I have a friend who owned an asphalt and gravel trucking business. The business was extremely successful. In September last year one of their trucks blew the left front tire while traveling on an interstate. The driver lost control, truck went into the grass median causing it to go airborne head-on into an 18 wheeler. The accident instantly killed the driver of the 18 wheeler. He was 38 years old with a wife and 2 young children. The driver of my friends truck suffered 3rd degree burns and nearly died. The emotional effect this had on my friend, his family and his co-owners was devastating. They asked themselves, "Could this happen again?" They closed the business down and liquidated it's assets.

And this has what to do with starting a motorcycle rental business?

 

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[trev0006]

I they wanted from me was a major card and drivers license.

The other day I was starring at my motorcycles and Im like I can probably rent them out, but what if they get damaged how would I know they will be responsible for this and not just run away or even steal my motorcycle.

I do know I would as for a motorcycle license they must have this to rent one
Then ask for a valid state ID and their debit card to put in the system just in case any damage tires, or even stolen I would automatically take the money out. But what if the debit doesnt have any funds how would I know this ?

Any people that rent out cars on the forums that might want to help me out please ?

 

[AllenCrawley]

I have a friend who owned an asphalt and gravel trucking business. The business was extremely successful. In September last year one of their trucks blew the left front tire while traveling on an interstate. The driver lost control, truck went into the grass median causing it to go airborne head-on into an 18 wheeler. The accident instantly killed the driver of the 18 wheeler. He was 38 years old with a wife and 2 young children. The driver of my friends truck suffered 3rd degree burns and nearly died. The emotional effect this had on my friend, his family and his co-owners was devastating. They asked themselves, "Could this happen again?" They closed the business down and liquidated it's assets.

And this has what to do with starting a motorcycle rental business?

For some reason I never saw this response to my post until now so I'll respond. Anyone with half a brain cell that read the previous 10 posts understands why I posted this.

Like someone else said, death is likely. Could you live with yourself knowing you rented a cycle out to someone and they died on it? Not trying to damper the mood, just trying to be realistic.

That is ridiculous. So now what he is suppose to be in charge of what adults do of their own free will?

As far as "That is ridiculous. So now what he is suppose to be in charge of what adults do of their own free will?"
When most people watch the news, or hear of a death they feel some kind of emotion even if they never even met the person. 99% of people would feel bad if someone wrecked on their bike and died, they wouldn't say "oh well, wasn't my fault" Being in charge of what someone does with their free will has nothing to do with this situation. Yes they decided to get on the motorcycle and it was their decision, that still doesn't mean he won't feel bad about it.

That's all the time I will spend on your stupid question.

 

[OldFaithful]

As a rider that likes the idea of renting a bike in far flung lands (which I've done before) this sounds like a good idea to me. You're filling a need and providing someone a thing/experience of value. Good luck and Godspeed.

Renting a motorcycle doesn't sound that much different from renting a car. License requirements, minimum age/experience levels, insurance implications, etc. Everything has risk and riders know that the risks are higher on a bike than in a cage. Yet I choose to ride...

 

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[Jon L]

I rode a Honda Rebel back and forth to work for 5 years. Hated it. Lol. It would be fun, though, to rent a more powerful bike just to see what that's like.

 

[RidersShare]

As a rider that likes the idea of renting a bike in far flung lands (which I've done before) this sounds like a good idea to me. You're filling a need and providing someone a thing/experience of value. Good luck and Godspeed.

Renting a motorcycle doesn't sound that much different from renting a car. License requirements, minimum age/experience levels, insurance implications, etc. Everything has risk and riders know that the risks are higher on a bike than in a cage. Yet I choose to ride...

Thanks man. Check us out www.xxxxx.com. We should go live in 2 weeks, currently beta testing

Edited by vigilante--- link removed

 

[OldFaithful]

Hey @21elnegocio have you decided to do this, or have the naysayers sufficiently dampened your spirits? If you think there is a market/need for this service, and especially if you can make it a fastlane business, then don't let the negativity get to you!

Did you check out your competition? Or perhaps a potential business associate? Ridersshare has 2 bikes listed. If that VRod was available near my next vacation locale, I'd definitely pay $99/day for that!

 

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[CycleGuy]

EDIT: I just realized this was a dinosaur thread that was raised from the dead. Sorry to continue to bump something old.



I would make sure the niche is there. If the location isn't a popular destination for motorcycles then a rental shop will have a tough time surviving.
The competition is also there from some big players (Harley Davidson) if you are in a good area.
By good area I mean a popular destination for riders. If you have a lot of riders in your area that's a good indicator.

So just like real estate location will greatly help rentals. Beaches and mountain towns instantly come to mind.
People want to rent a bike to enjoy the beauty around them in these areas.

Also I've dealt with some rental businesses that use 1 or 2 different models ONLY of a rental.
Specific example: A business in South Florida rents scooters. Instead of having tons of different types of cheap knock of chinese scooters they only rented Honda Metropolitan scooters. They had an entire fleet of the same model scooter.

This is important for multiple reasons. As you mentioned things break and issues happen. A name brand Honda scooter can have any new part within 2 days from Honda. If you have all the same models you can keep a nice stock of the parts that are often broken or may need replaced frequently (mirrors, bulbs, grips, levers etc).


Other tips would be get a great insurance policy and pay a lawyer to write up a bulletproof Liability Waiver. Also make sure to always have helmets/eye protection available in multiple sizes to give them on a rental.

Good luck.